


You Feel It Coming

by Homer



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Agent Reign, Alex tries to hardass herself but you can only avoid pain for so long, Danvarias, F/F, Gen, Hurt Alex Danvers, Hurt/Comfort, I'm a slut for injury/sickfics y'all better learn that now, Pain, Protective Samantha "Sam" Arias, Self-Indulgent, Sickfic, gentle sam arias, supportive sam arias
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 01:43:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17295302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Homer/pseuds/Homer
Summary: Hereditary genes are a blessing and a curse, at times. Thanks to her father's genetics, Alex's symptoms decide to flare up.Alex feels off all day, only to realize before her date with her girlfriend, Sam, that her night is about to getsomuch worse. But she won't let that stop her.(AKA a super self-indulgent fic cause I like to read sickfics when I'm sick/hurting so this is just me giving back, I guess)





	You Feel It Coming

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy, howdy! this is a self-indulgent af fic that somehow turned into 3k words *shrugs*
> 
> fun fact: all the stuff about Alex in there with the family history, the drugs, symptoms, etc is all based on my real life!  
> Kidney stones suck, and they hurt like a bitch. I actually had mine x-rayed today lmao.
> 
> Anyway, enough with that, enjoy some suffering Alex and gentle Sam below
> 
> on Tumblr @uhb-sessed

                The Danvers family are no strangers to pain. Eliza, growing up, had some spine abnormalities and anemia, Jeremiah had an irregular heartbeat and diabetes, and both sets of grandparents ended up with Alzheimer’s.  

                At least Alex had a sense of what to expect.

                Hereditary genes can be a blessing or a curse.

/

                Alex started her day as normal, waking up, starting coffee, showering. She felt a little off but marked it up to being at the dive bar the night before (maybe she shouldn’t have tried that supposed ‘human-safe’ alien drink [ _Kara said it was good, alright?_ ]). Grabbing her toast and drizzling it with honey, she sat down on her couch and started to scroll through the overnight DEO reports on her phone.

                Thankfully nothing too major occurred, general busts of alien drugs and the like. She snorted at one particular report by Agent Vasquez, _honestly how stupid can people be?_

                Once she got to the DEO, she pushed all gut feelings about the day to the side and focused on her task at hand: being the Director.

/

                Gut feelings pushed back. Alex’s hands made their way to her temples, trying to message the feeling away – it was starting to get worse. It was only about two in the afternoon, a decent time to blow off some steam. She changed out of her ops uniform and into some more relaxed training clothes and hit the gym.

                She couldn’t shake it. _Why can’t I shake this?_ After a few rounds against some new recruits, that raised her spirits slightly – a good fight tends to do that for her.

                The next thing she knew, she was being summoned by Colonel Haley.

                _Great._

/

                _Well, that meeting went better than expected._ There was an unscheduled video conference with the president – mostly between himself and Colonel Haley, leaving her to just stand there and… nod. Her focus had been going down all day – she knew it, but ignored it. She had a job to do.

                She left the conference room and found her way to the women’s locker room – starting to pace back and forth in front of her locker, hands behind her head.

                _Fuck. Now?_

 _Did it really have to come_ now _?_

                She had a date with Sam tonight, for crying out loud. She didn’t want to miss it for _this_.

                _Thanks, Dad, for making me a fifth-generation kidney stone carrier._

                Hand trembling slightly, she started to dig into the depths of her locker for some pain meds she always kept around.

                _Where is it, where is it where is it where is it?_

                There!

                In the back corner of the shelf was a orange-tinted bottle with a few pills left inside. She opened it, grabbed two, and swallowed.

                _God, I hope these work fast_.

/

                An hour goes by, another hour until her date with Sam.

                She mounts her Ducati and, for a second, almost – _almost -_ calls Kara to take her home. _Just get home and you can lay down for twenty minutes. Take some more pain meds, and go out with Sam. You’ll be fine. You’ve gone through worse with this before._

                Unlocking her apartment door, she tosses her keys in the dish by the foyer, shucks off her boots, and crawls up onto her bed.

                _Ugh, this isn’t any better_.

                But it’s better than standing, for now.

                Flicking her eyes to her watch, she sees she has about half an hour before Sam comes by to pick her up. So, she lays there. Repositions herself. Stills. Repositions.

                The never-ending cycle of uncomfortableness.

                _Ten minutes until Sam’s here_.

                She forces herself to get up, manages to find an old icy-hot patch to attach to her side, and changes into a looser shirt. It’s about five minutes until Sam gets there now, and Alex winces as she leans down to grab her boots and slide them on.

                One of the two are on when she hears a knock at her door.

                “Coming!” Walking over half shoed, she opens the door. “Hey.”

                “Hey!” Sam gives her a hug that Alex tentatively returns. “So, I was thinking about tonight… what do you think about that new Malaysian place downtown? I’ve heard it’s good.”

                “Sounds good to me, just let me get my other shoe on and we can go.”

                She sinks back down onto her couch, slowly and carefully to mask another wince, before leaning to grab her shoe and slide it on.

                “Are you okay, Alex?”

                “Yeah, just a long day. Sparred with some of the new recruits. Some of ‘em actually have some grit if you can believe that.”

                Sam laughs. “Enough to take _you_ down? I’d say they’d have to have more than enough.”

                “Enough to take on their own Director? Well, let’s just say I don’t think many of them are going to try again anytime soon.”

/

                They make it to the restaurant in Sam’s SUV, get seated and manage to order in a timely fashion. They’re sitting in a corner table, catty-corner to each other and Alex can’t. get. comfortable.

                She’s squirming every ten minutes, trying to stay still. It reminds her of the time in her 8am philosophy class in college when she had a stone pop up and didn’t even make it through class. She wanted to make it through this date. Sam shouldn’t worry about her – these were _normal_ and _common_ , and she can _take care of herself_. She’s done it before.

                “. . .Hey.”

                _Oh shit, Sam was talking._

                “Are you okay?”

                “Yeah.”

                “Are you sure?”

                “Yes.”

                Sam looks at her with the same face she makes at Ruby when she knows she’s hiding something. But she trusts Alex, so she doesn’t push. The face doesn’t last long though, her face lights up with the waitress delivering the dishes.

                “Oh. My god. This is so _good_ ,” Sam gushes, five bites into her meal.

                Truthfully Alex can barely taste hers, she’s just eating. They’re small bites, but honestly, she doesn’t feel all that hungry.

                She manages to eat about half of her plate before feigning she’s had enough, keeping up coherent conversation with Sam for the last half hour or so. She’s learned Ruby got an A on her latest test in biology, the school soccer tryouts are coming up soon and Ruby’s ecstatic to make the team again, and Sam had the hardest time keeping a straight face in an investor meeting today as the lead board member had a booger stuck in his mustache for the entire meeting and no one had either the heart or the nerve to tell him.

                Alex did actually laugh at that, thought it hurt to do so.

                Now she doesn’t feel too good.

                “Hey, I need to pop into the restroom, okay?”

                “Sure. I’ll grab the check.”

                “I thought we were splitting it?”

                “You’re had a long day, and I’m a CFO. Just let me take it. You’re my favorite agent, after all.” At that, Alex steps over towards Sam’s side of the table and places a kiss on her forehead.

/

                _Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Do_ NOT _do this right now Danvers. Suck it up. Do_ NOT _throw up in this bathroom, I swear to god_ -

                She throws up.

                It burns, on the way up. And out. And again, again, again.

                From her position halfway knelt on the floor, at least she can appreciate that they keep their tiled floor clean.

                She leans back a little and bonks her head on the cool siding of the bathroom stall. No one else was in there, thankfully. But she didn’t know their waitress had followed her in a minute later, only to leave seconds after she started retching.

                “Alex?” Sam calls.

                _Fuck_.

                “Alex, are you okay? The waitress said something worrying about you in here and I just wanted to check on you.”

                She doesn’t respond. She feels it coming again, trying to ward it off by breathing steady.

                A knock on her stall door. “Alex, what’s going on? You’ve been acting weird all night and-“

                Another round of vomiting cuts her off.

                Alex halfway coughs, trying to breathe between spells. Then it registers that Sam’s rattling the lock mechanism.

                She flushes the toilet before fumbling the lock open.

                Alex’s chest is heaving, hands shaking, palms sweaty. Sam steps in front of her, taking her face in both hands.

                “What’s going on? Hey, hey, hey,” Sam gently pats Alex’s cheeks. “Look at me. I’m right here, baby. Tell me what’s wrong.”

                Alex’s wide eyes met Sam’s, then she lurched back towards the toilet and threw up again. Sam’s hands moved to support her girlfriend, not knowing what else she could do at the moment.

                “Were you allergic to something? Are you sick? Was it something from the DEO?”

                In-between breaths, Alex explained. “My family has a genetic history of kidney stones. I was one of the lucky ones, as you can see.” She tried to laugh at her own joke, but it came out in more of a huff than anything – making her side twinge and causing her breath to catch.

                “I’ve heard those hurt worse than childbirth.”

                “Oh yeah? I wouldn’t know.”

                “I would. And it hurts like a truck. And,” Sam starts, helping Alex to her feet, “I know you’re not one to wimp out at some pain. So if you’re at the point where you’re throwing up on some Asian cuisine bathroom floor, then it’s bad.”

                “You think you know me so well, huh?”

                “I do,” Sam replies softly.

/

                They manage to walk back to the side street they parked on, and Sam helps Alex get into the passenger seat. As she walks around to the driver’s side, she quickly whips out her phone asking Lena to stay over at her place with Ruby for the night with a short but vague explanation.

                It’s only a fifteen-minute drive back to Alex’s apartment, but Sam can tell that Alex is in silent agony the entire time. Shifting every couple minutes, arching her back, hunching over, cold hands drifting under her shirt, tearing off the now inert icy-hot patch with a grunt.

                Sam’s hand drifts over the center console onto Alex’s thigh, palm up in invitation. Alex grabs it and squeezes.

                She holds it the entire ride back.

                “Alex,” Sam calls softly. “We’re here.”

                Alex blearily raises her head off the cool glass of the window and nods.

/

                They shuffle into Alex’s apartment. Alex’s anxiety and stress levels are heightened, and Sam is just worried. She’s never dealt with kidney stones before. She doesn’t know what to do. Sick kids? That she can do. A girlfriend in relentless pain? That’s new. She’s tempted to call Kara – though she doesn’t want to overstep _. Would that be overstepping? She is her sister after all._

                She sighs and decides to voice her question. “Should I call Kara?”

                “No, no don’t. She always means well when I’m hurt, she’s as over-protective as I am, but she’s useless when it comes to understanding pain. She’s just a little… overbearing.” She takes a deep breath; a minute grimace crosses her face. “She tries, she does, it’s just- I know her. She’ll make it a bigger deal than it is.”

                “In that case, what can I do?”

                “Can you grab my pain meds?” Alex responds, leaning back against the arm of her couch. “Open the left mirror in the bathroom. It’s the one named Tamsulosin.”

                “Sure.” Sam makes her way into Alex’s bathroom and finds the right cabinet. There’re a few different medications on the shelf, Sam having to glance at a few before finding the right one. The top of the cap had the word ‘ _PAIN_ ’ scrawled on it in capitals and permanent marker, underlined for emphasis _. I guess when you’re in pain and can’t think what’s what, that’s one way to label things, Alex._ Reading the bottle to herself as she walks into the kitchen to grab a glass of water to go with it, she reads the side effects. “Take a half-hour following the same meal daily.” _Would that really matter if your stomach’s empty?_ “May cause drowsiness. Alcohol may make this worse. Take caution when operating heavy machinery.” _Well, at least Alex seemed to think ahead for once, she didn’t order wine at dinner._ The last warning was written in bold and in all caps. “MAY CAUSE DIZZINESS.”

                With a hum, she sat the bottle down on the counter and grabbed a glass from Alex’s kitchen cabinet, filling it at the tap. A quick glance over at the agent showed she was feeling no better than before. She sat curled up, one hand against her forehead, the other under her shirt holding her left side.

                A flicker of tenderness crossed Sam’s features as she gazed at her girlfriend. She knelt down next to her, touching her arm lightly. “Here you go.”

                Alex mumbled some form of thanks, taking both the pill and the glass. Knocking her head back, she swallowed, quickly followed by her greedily drinking the rest of the water in the glass.

                “Whoa, hey, take it easy. Your stomach probably isn’t handling everything very well.”

                Alex nods, leaning into Sam.

                “Oh, honey…” Sam skootches herself up onto the couch and lets Alex position herself as she needs. She ends up half in Sam’s lap, head hidden in her neck, having placed Sam’s cold hands under her shirt on her aching side.

/

                They sat there for roughly half an hour, Sam’s guess, when Alex started to fidget again. Her hands kept clenching and un-clenching Sam’s shirt. It would have been cute, Sam thought, if she wasn’t in so much pain.

                “Did I ever tell you I had these as a kid?” Alex says. “When I was. . . eight? Probably? I had one so bad I was in the hospital for two days. It sucked.”

                Sam chuckled lowly. “I bet it would. Was that your first one?”

                “No.” Alex raises her head up to look Sam in the eyes. “According to my parents, I had one at four. Mom said I acted just like Dad did when he had them. We were on vacation at the beach,” she shrugs.

                “Wow.”

                “Yeah.”

                “I can’t imagine Ruby having these.”

                “Don’t,” Alex laughs. “They suck. And as a kid they seem even worse, ‘cause you still haven’t really learned to think around the pain yet.”

                “Mmm, true. No wonder she’s so moody when she has a fever.”

                At that, Alex cracks a smile before shivering.

                “Cold?”

                Alex huffs. “Y’see, that’s where the fun comes in. Kidney stones are a bitch. I’ll be cold, then I’ll be warm. Ice and heat on my side, et cetera. That’s good for it; supposedly. There’s not much out there on at-home treatments for this.

                “But that’s not the worst part. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you can’t get comfortable with these. Not even for a second. I’ll lay down for five minutes, then I’ll stand, then I’ll pace circles around my apartment for forty minutes, and then I’ll do it all again. I might get nauseous, haul around a bottle of ice water with me for the next few hours, just to throw it up again. I’m just praying this pill stays down.”

/

                Sam stays and does what she can. Alex does as she said would probably happen: she settles, wanders around, takes a swig of her water; repeat one, two, seven more times. They try to watch some Netflix together, but Alex can’t focus.

                “Sam, oh my god it’s 11pm. You need to go home.”

                “It’s fine, Alex.”

                “Ruby’s home alone! Is that okay? Has she done that before?”

                “Alex, calm down. I texted Lena earlier; she’s staying with Ruby, so I can stay with you.”

                “Sam, you don’t have to stay-“

                “Yes, I do. I love you, and I want to take care of you. Even if that just means I sit here and keep you company.” At that, she can see some tears starting to form in the agent’s eyes. “C’mere, Alex.”

                Alex takes a few steps towards the couch, Sam stands and envelops the slightly shorter girl in a hug.

/

                They manage to change into pajamas and crawl into Alex’s bed. Sam dug out an old electric heating pad at Alex’s request – Alex now having it tucked against her side. Alex is nestled under Sam’s right arm, held firmly yet comfortingly into her girlfriend’s torso.

                Sam falls asleep before Alex does – the steady rise and fall of her chest sending comforting signals to the agent. After a while, she falls asleep.

/

                Sam wakes to an empty bed.

                The heating pad was left next to her, still on. A glance at the digital clock said it was 3:47am.

                Being alone isn’t what worried her.

                The sound of vomiting down the hallway did.

                She quickly throws the remaining covers off of herself before finding herself standing in the open doorway of the bathroom, seeing one Alex Danvers dry heave into the toilet.

                Alex pulls back, a few tears running down her face, Sam notes, as she turns and sees her girlfriend.

                “Sam,” Alex chokes.

                “Hey, hey,” Sam coos, stepping to kneel in front of her. “Did you get it all out?”

                “Well nothing else is coming out. Yet,” she chokes back a laugh.

                Sam smooths back Alex’s sweaty hairline. “Do you want to go back to bed?”

                “. . .yeah.” Alex places one hand on the side of the tub, another on the edge of the toilet, and tries to push herself up.

                “No, no no _nononope_. Sam? _Sam_? I need help, I- I’m _dizzy_ , like _really_ dizzy. I don-don’t think I can stand-“

                “I got you, I got you.”

/

                Alex curls practically in the fetal position when they’re back in bed. Arms around Sam, legs intertwined, grounding herself. Sam doesn’t mind the contact. She rubs what’s hopefully a comforting hand up and down her girl’s back, making sure to leave the heating pad in position.

                This time Alex sleeps first. Sam follows soon after.

/

                The next time Sam wakes, there’s a bit of sun peeping through the curtains. The slit of light lands across Alex, who’s still half on top of Sam’s chest. The light brings out the red tint in the agent’s hair, the softness of her neck, the fade of hair by her ear.

                She’s breathing deep through her mouth, right hand clutching the bottom of Sam’s t-shirt in a wad.

 

                The night is over, Alex is strong. She’ll be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> No beta we die like women B)
> 
> Yell at me here or on Tumblr @uhb-sessed :)
> 
> Comment what you'd like to see more of, or just a prompt!  
> I've really been into writing oneshots recently so who knows, y'all might get lucky :)


End file.
